But architecture tells only half the story in this place where so many peculiarly Spanish passions - bullfighting, fiestas and flamenco - find their most vivid expression.
Catalan nationalists eager to push the idea that bullfighting is a Spanish cultural imposition that offends Catalan sensibilities, turned the debate into an issue of national identity.
Some critics said that bullfighting flourished in Spain because the country was backward under General Franco, the Spanish dictator until his death in 1975.